Subj : Re: Fall
To   : Mark Hofmann
From : Arelor
Date : Thu Sep 30 2021 03:20:32

  Re: Re: Fall
  By: Mark Hofmann to Sean Dennis on Wed Sep 29 2021 06:44 pm

 > Heat pumps are horrible - especially for heat.  They cost a fortune to run and don't even warm u
 > that much.  It is a cheap and easy way for builders to get HVAC into some homes.
 > 
 > I would much rather have natural gas, propane, or oil heat.  Anything buy a heat pump.  Never ha
 > one in any of the homes I have lived.  I have had oil and natural gas.
 > 

Heat pumps are great but they are only great withing a tight range of temperatures.

If it is too cold outside (when you need the heating the most) then their efficency plummets down
like a falling brick. Under 3 ªC or so you risk developing frost in the evaporator, which kills
any chance of it working well. There are manufacturers who say they can push their units bellow -1'
ªC but I don't buy that.

Heat pumps shine in hybrid deployments. This is when you have a pump or set of pumps connected in
tandom with a regular oil or gas heater. This way, you can use an automatic controller for enabling
the heat pumps when they are most efficient, and switch to a regular boiler on-the-fly when pumps
stop being cost effective.

Bonus points because you can also revert the pumps and get cool air-conditionning in summer with
some tweaks in the setup.

Gotta love Engineering, so useful for Micronet conversations :-)

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